Reply #65: Many rape victims suffer from such a severe storm of internal conflict over reporting.

[riderinthestorm]

You have no idea how conflicted that choice is. It's hard enough to get a victim (I'm going to stop using that term now and switch to the more appropriate term of "survivor, fyi), to go to a hospital, let alone getting the police involved.

Then you add another layer of media firestorm? Whoa. That just may be impossible for any survivor to cope with. Societal stigma against rape survivors is so deeply entrenched, most just feel so much shame. It can take decades to get to a place of peace about it.

IF McQueary is a rape survivor, he may have suppressed the memory for decades as well. He may never have told his parents. Whatever scene he saw may have trigged flashbacks that put him right back into at PTSD relapse.

We all like to think we'd be all brave and heroic but in fact, sexual abuse so thoroughly traumatizes the psyche, it skews one's sense of normality. McQueary may not want to reveal his own sexual abuse (if indeed it is true) because he may have never dealt with it, even yet. Add on the layer of hero worship the Penn Stage coaching staff seems to have elicited - whoa nelly, major meltdown.